I just realised I have quite a lot of things to get done. I just got nagged over preparing my programme notes. I haven't started on it yet and it has to be submitted by September for registration so I can take the exam early next year. There's the start of O level papers in 16 weeks. Mom suggested I bribe Jean to help me do my programme notes by helping her do her Math homework. This is called appreciating each others' strengths. She can crap intelligently (as quoted form E) while I can complete her Math work very effeciently. Jean, that means you don't have to spend your whole night doing Math and holding an interactive Math discussion with the whole household. Ok, I'm just kidding. If I let Jean do my programme notes and it turns out to score well, I'm going to have to live the rest of my life dedicating a portion of my results to her.

I got a call this afternoon from HCJC. I was quite confused when I picked up the call because I remembered myself not submitting the online application yet. It seemed like it was time for my next ear check. I was attempting to ignore the online application and just say to myself, "oh yea.. deadline's over anyway" after a long time. That's because of my first failure in this area and the fact that xj told me the one and only person who DSAed into HC string ensemble had a diploma in violin and piano, and was a concert mistress in her string ensemble. The person asked me if I was intending to submit my application. I said "I dunno" at first but after she talked for a while, I said, "ok, ok. I'll submit". I don't know what got into me, but trouble is, there's no backing out now because I'll be recieving the audition time slot soon. I think I'll do the Bach and the cadenza for Mozart's violin concerto, as recommended by mom. Unfortunately, the success rate for me is negligible so I'll just take the audition as a dip exam rehearsal and a thrilling experience.

The top, back part of my head hurts. It's been about a year since my last head extension. This latest one happened in church. My group was gathered at the usual corner of the room. I happened to be sitting just in front of a door frame where the door hinge lies. I was leading bible study about making decisions. Jasmine's "tough" decision on whether to "shit" or to continue completing her O level paper last year turned out to be rather discussable. I was laughing so hard I accidentally tilted my head 45 degreees to the back, very fast, and banged the door frame quite hard. I quickly felt my head to see if it was still in one piece. Thankfully, it was. But it felt different. If I measured my height now, I think I'd be 0.3 cm taller.

To my surprise, I'm finding myself addicted to a facebook game - Who has the Biggest Brain? It all started yesterday when I tried the iphone version on xj's phone. After that, I was hooked on it and kept wanting to improve my score. I beat xj yesterday, but xj beat me today, and I've beaten her back. Ah well, not bad for my 2nd day playing it. Even Jean got addicted and I need to improve before I challenge Siling. Sigh... This is bad. I shouldn't get myself hooked onto games just when the holiday is about to end.

Ever since I resumed violin practice after coming back from Malaysia, my left hand's fingertips have been hurting. It starts being hard to press the violin strings after around an hour of violin practice. After violin practice today was rondo-ing. That made my fingers hate me more. Maybe it's because of my 4-day break.

School starts tomorrow. I don't look forward to starting school again. The only thing that's going to be interesting is watching how the school deals with H1N1.

Today was some family reunion thing because my granduncle and his family had arrived from Vancouver. There were 15 people squashed at one round table for lunch. The people there consisted of the 3 dinosaurs (my grandfather, his brother who came back from Vancouver and one of his sisters. If I'm not wrong, he has 11 siblings), my grandmother and grandaunt (I won't call them dinosaurs), 4 monkeys (Jean, Jensen, Jerome and me), Emily (my granduncle's daughter), Terrence (Emily's new husband), my parents and Jensen's parents. The last time I saw my granduncle (his name is pronounced as "Carpark", please don't ask me why) and his family was around 2003/4 when my family went to Seattle for our holiday and drove up to Vancouver, Canada.

I was reading Jean's blog and took a long time to stop laughing because I was reminded of what happened today. I shall use some of what she posted for my source of inspiration.

Carpark and my grandfather are very alike. When you put them together, they look almost the same even though there's a large age gap. The only difference is that Carpark looks like he tried to dye his hair black in order to look young. Both of them have a great sense of humour, and a lot of wisdom.

Carpark was trying to scoop some noodle into his bowl, but he was having some trouble because the noodle was too long and his hands couldn't go any higher. The rest of us were busy looking at him and feeling worried. I was wondering which genius came up with long noodles that were so user-unfriendly. Then he looked up, smiled, and said, "long life!". Everyone couldn't help but laugh at his comment.

Carpark: "When in doubt.. YELL"
That's the advice he gave Jensen. Jensen was trying to pick up a piece of carrot cake from the sliding round table, but the waitress rotated the glass as she wanted to clear some plates that were clogging up the table. Jensen looked so scared and he was still half-clinging on to the carrot cake with his chopsticks. Everyone was stunned at first but didn't know how to help Jensen. Then Jensen started shouting, "Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me! MY CARROT CAKE!" I think the poor waitress got a shock.

I think there's a gangster trait in the Chan family. I mean, the 3rd generation. Jensen and Jerome suddenly started fighting at the table even though they were initially seated 1 seat apart. When their mom asked them for an explanation, the young and not-innocent Jerome said, "I stare at him (Jensen), then he stare at me, then we fight lor.." His mom didn't know what to say.

Mom was talking to Emily and asked her if she went skiing in Vancouver. Both of them happen to be anti-skiing. Mom always dedicates herself solely to the bunny hill (the easiest slope) while the rest of us go on to the higher mountain slopes. Then Emily said, "I'm not gonna plant myself on two slabs of plastic and throw myself off the mountain!" Mom immediately nodded her head in agreement. Dad was just frowning.

Ye ye (to Carpark): "I had a cataract a few years ago..."
Jerome: "Hey I want a Cadillac too!"
Ye ye was telling Carpark about how he had free medical treatment and all that because he was on government pension. Jerome, on the other hand, is crazy over cars. He's four years old, but can tell you the brand of any car that whizzes by, and I am impressed. He goes crazy whenever he sees toy cars in shopping centres. Just that today, he happened to listen to the wrong conversation.

Most of the rest of my day was spent walking around shopping with my parents. Everyone needs a good break after going on holiday. I felt so tired today I was sleeping most of the morning and in the car. I have 2 Tamiya models on my waiting list. I want to start on them but I don't think I should until O levels are over. Another thing I want to do (I've been wanting to do since a few years ago) is writing a biography of my grandparents. Ye ye keeps telling me not to but I want to because their lives are interesting and I'd regret it if I don't record the stories they tell me. Enough ranting.

I roomed with dad and camp was pretty good. I had fun, and learnt a lot at the same time. The camp was held at Batu Pahat, Malaysia. It's a less developed region of Malaysia, but far from the worst you can possibly find in Malaysia. It was quite contrasting from Singapore and larger cities in Malaysia like KL and JB because there were hardly any high-rise buildings within sight. The hotel we stayed in was the most advanced, with 15 levels. Level 4 and 14 were missing in the lift buttons because there was the inauspicious "4" in them, but that was compensated by levels L and M. The hotel was probably of a 3-star standard, but the food was so good that not a single person had stomach problems (it was usual to have one or two cases of food poisoning in hotels of better rating during church camps). The next most advanced place within sight from my room window was the shopping centre. It was comparable to an old shopping centre in Singapore, but with air conditioning. The rest of my view was mainly old cars lined up in big car parks and dusty plots of land. The houses there are what we refer to as bungalows, widely spaced and pretty large. But the architecture was not advanced and they looked like stuffy places to live in. This was the best place to have a church camp in because it took us away from some of the luxuries of life, and reminded me to be thankful for what I have.

The theme for the camp was "效法基督，成为见证", which was the same as the church's theme for this year. I learnt so much I don't think I can type out everything here. Reading the bible for understanding was one of the most important lessons I learnt. I've been in cai liang cd's 查经 (sorry for the intensive amount of Chinese I'm using but I think this means "reading/interpreting the bible" in English) class for quite a few weeks and so he's been teaching Jacky, Jethro and I the basics of reading the bible. The Observation, Interpretation and Application concept. During the sermons, I noticed how the speaker used the concept and how he interpreted the bible. I saw plenty of examples and even simple stories like the prodigal son were were related to the camp theme. I also realised how every single Chinese character mattered, and that in some books, an English-Chinese parallel bible shed new light on important details. More importantly, seeing how all that I learnt in church linked up with how the speaker spoke, I now see the reading the bible in a better light. As a kid who grew up in a Christian environment, I am very familiar with all the bible stories and read the thick book a few times, but it was all on a very shallow level. Therefore, this was one of the things that impacted me the most during the camp.

It's impossible to type out the things I learnt because it requires a chain of thought. If I type it out, it'll become a sermon script. I'll move on to other aspects of the camp. There were many things to be thankful about during the camp. First, there was trouble at the Singapore immigration when we were trying to enter Malaysia because the instruments packed along couldn't clear the customs. The church had sent a letter to a immigration authority, but they didn't do anything to it. When the instruments reached the border, the officers wanted to confiscate it. I was quite worried because singing without instruments would be weird. Sure it wasn't that much of a problem, but instruments were created by God so that people could use them to praise Him, and they are used to enhance worship. It took time, effort and prayer to get them through. The people in the bus carrying the equipment had to wait for over an hour while the church negotiated with the supervisor. In the end, the instruments cleared the border.

Another incident occurred on Day 3, regarding durians. The activity for the time slot on Day 2 was supposed to be going shopping or eating durians. Due to the majority winning, the durian-eating event lost, so we went shopping. The speaker saw how some people wanted to eat durians but couldn't because the durians had to be ordered in bulk and wasn't cheap either. On Day 3, he surprised everyone when he said he had a friend who was willing to deliver 120kg of durians and other fruit. When he asked the friend how much it would cost, the friend said it was on him. All the pro-durian people (about 90%) were able to enjoy the afternoon snack and this was really quite a blessing, and something to give thanks for.

I was a group leader during the camp. There weren't as many youth this year as compared to other years partly because the camp was held on the last week of June. The median age among the youth was 18. My group consisted of sec 1s and 3s. There were no sec 2s and I was the only sec 4 who seemed free enough to go for camp. The sec1s were really quiet and did not want to share much. They scared me when they said they didn't learn a single thing on the first day, so I decided we would pray for them and see what happened. The next day, they were able to open up a bit and shared what they learnt. I know I wasn't a really good group leader, because my social and leadership skills are err... __________, but there's a whole lifetime to gain more experience.

I discovered my interest in drinking coffee a few days ago. There were bags of coffee packets lying on the refreshment table, so I decided to try drinking coffee, also with the purpose of attempting to use the caffeine effect during the sermons. But after taking a a sip, I suddenly realised that coffee didn't taste bad at all. I used to dislike coffee and tea when I was younger. But just at that moment, the coffee suddenly tasted friendly. What's more amazing, I managed to sleep at night (morning). I can't remember how many cups of coffee I drank. When my grandmother saw me drinking coffee, she was stunned/shell shocked and quickly asked me if I was ok. I told her coffee actually tasted good and she looked quite puzzled because she was still reminiscing the times when I proclaimed my anti-coffeeism to her. I told her to try the coffee and she also started to like it. Another convert. As if it were some occasion worth celebrating, she bought a bag of coffee for me and one for herself just now. She came up with a mission for me - to spread the love for coffee to my family, starting with dad.

I slept past midnight for all three nights. The sleeping time was supposed to be 10pm, but of course no one sleeps that early and people still have to shower and all that after the night activities. For the first night, I decided to watch TV (channel 5 and 8 were available) and /tried/ to do homework. The second night, went out to the older people's room. We played cards and watched TV. The last night was a long sharing session at wei xuan's room. All the youth were there, err except for a few. We talked till almost 1am, then I went to sleep. The rest went to another room and played till 2am. I already had trouble surviving this morning and if I didn't sleep, I'd be even more tired.

That sums up a fun and meaningful camp. I'm dead tired so I'm going to sleep now. Tomorrow is another long day.

I went to Joseph's house yesterday (the accompanist) and it turned out to be rather funny and relaxing. At first he wanted a one-hour lesson, but then after playing with me once, he decided that there was nothing else we needed to work on. Lesson was over in 20mins and he decided that he'd only collect payment for that lesson after a last rehearsal and the actual performance. It's a rather good price compared to the last accompanist I had for grade 7 and 8. Her's was terribly overpriced. It's good to have an accompanist who's a Christian and related to someone you know, because you can be sure that you won't be over charged. Mom and him discovered that they both knew xiu juan ls. She was his NAFA classmate or something, and they met up regularly. The world is so small.

My day got more interesting and the world became smaller. I met Mr Lee at Gramercy. He was looking at some double bass bows. Then he started telling me about how the concert next Tuesday was called off. He also got a shock on Friday because no seniors turned up. In return, I got a shock because I didn't know. Apart from shocking each other, we had a friendly chat on the CCA. (Oh and Natalie, have you bought your violin yet? Mr Lee saw you the other day and negotiated a 10% discount for you, but was wondering whether you eventually bought a violin there.) I realised that as a musician, it's important to have good relations with the music circle. The music circle consists of a few music shops, musicians and luthiers (instrument makers). That way, you can get better pricing and trustworthy advice.

I was surprised the Gramercy staff could recognise me and my violin even though the last time I was there was more than half a year ago. One guy introduced me to a carbon bow, similar to my carbon bow, but much lighter. I tried it out. That one was hollow inside and it had the feel of a super light badminton racquet. I didn't dare to look at the price tag and had to convince myself to remain loyal to my current bow. Mom asked me if I wanted to buy a case. I was eyeing on the hard, light and waterproof ones. The guy opened a particular one that smelled like the inside of a BMW. I like some of the cases, but they didn't quite suit my needs. There was the very light and compact type, but it could not fit more than a violin and bow (means I have to hand-carry my shoulder rest). There was even one that couldn't fit a bow. There was a type that had everything I wanted, except that it weighed a ton. Therefore, I am not sure about my next move.

Last night, I looked at the NJC web site and it suddenly occurred to me that my DSA application failed. I thought all applicants would have to go for their aptitude test (tomorrow) and was suspicious on why they hadn't informed me about it yet. Then I looked more closely and saw that it said only successful CCA applicants would be required to take the test. The fact that they have not contacted me means I probably failed the audition. I was quite confident I'd get in because NJC also got bronze for SYF, so I thought I'd have a higher chance. I also began to like the environment there because it would suit my interest of math and science. I was already contemplating on whether or not to hand in the rest of my DSA applications because I already set my mind on NJC. But now, it looks like I won't be able to get in the "easy" way. 5 points for my O levels is going to take a big miracle to achieve. Right now, I'm still contemplating on whether or not to hand in the rest of my DSA applications, but due to a different set of reasons. The schools I'm planning to DSA into are supposedly "better" schools - ACJC (silver) and RJC (gold with honours). If even NJC doesn't think I'm good enough, what more would RJC or ACJC. They'd really be wasting their time processing my application. Sigh... This is demoralising. I need to buck up on violin.

Going for church retreat tomorrow. Jean won't be going and hence mom won't be going this time. I think I'll end up sharing room with dad. That means it's going to be hard doing what teenagers like doing at night - sneaking out to each others' rooms. Ah well, it's actually already a known fact that teenagers do that, but I reminded him that I might be coming back to the room late (or rather early in the morning). He just smiled to himself. I wonder if that's a yes or a no. I'll find out this week.

My tagboard is being spammed in a very complex yet innovative way. In this post, I hope to bore all readers as far as possible. In particular, JO_N.

Today was a highly boring day. I woke up super early (8am) and started on finishing my workload for the day. But really, I found myself with not much homework left to do. All I have left is Chemistry SPA online and reading through the stack of 10 years of O Level Chinese Oral exams. Both are not very important at the moment because almost no one has bothered replying the forums and the Chinese is for my leisure. So I summarised GM in India and prepared worship leading for tomorrow. I was so free I even added pictures for each slide, which is extremely rare in my case.

To bore you out further, I shall elaborate on my boredom. I was so bored I had the intention of spending my morning at school, listening to the CCA and helping whoever needed help. But I eventually decided against it because I would cause confusion there and probably disrupt normalcy. But honestly, I do feel worried for strings. I've been hearing contradicting theories on the current situation, and I feel better believing the worse scenarios.

I spent 4 hours (inclusive of dinner) doing one Physics experiment (the one Ck, zoom, JY and Elprada got for me). I was trying to build the pendulum clock thing, but all the gears, axles and washers etc had to be carefully planned out in order for the whole system to work. Like if you forgot to slot in the washer before pressing in the gear, you'd have to painstakenly pull it out, pull other gears out to get that gear out, then fix it up and redo everything. I didn't plan ahead and ended up redoing it a few times. Redoing was not an easy task because I had to retrace everything, pull the stuff apart and that would inevitably result in further wreckage. By the time I completed it and learnt the Physics behind it, 4 hours had passed. This was a really good cure for boredome. It taught me a very unrelated lesson: always plan ahead before doing anything.

Tomorrow: meeting accompanist for O level music practical. I'm not looking forward to our first meeting because I haven't even perfected the Romance in G I'm playing yet.

Mom set me holiday homework. I was in charge of scanning in 4 photo albums she found in my grandma's house. She decided to bring it back and scan in the pictures. As the saying goes, "don't put all your eggs in one basket". If our house gets burned down, at least there will still be some photos at relative's houses. I spent a few nights doing this and felt very robot-like after that because I had to repeat the same procedure of scanning dunno how many times. 3 albums consisted of US photos and the other was Singapore. Here's some of my hardwork.

The following are mostly pictures taken when we were in US (1998-2001), with the exception of the last one.


This was taken on my 5th birthday, a few weeks after moving to US.

Same occassion. Mom said I looked like I was advertising for some toothpaste brand. I have no idea why Jean was carrying her tiny backpack but I remember that she kept insisting on carrying that to celebrate my birthday.

We went to visit the Niagra Falls and we got into a boat that brought us near the falls (not under it). Jean and I weren't too happy because we were all wet. Only my parents seemed to enjoy it.

This was taken at Rhode Island. I don't know why I was sitting there. Meditating?

Jean standing in front of our house. She looks very tiny. Once during Winter, our water pipe got frozen and there was no water supply to our house. So we had to get water from the supermarket for drinking and ate out whenever cooking was required. For showers, we went to dad's friend's hotel room (he happened to be staying in a hotel at the moment because he had just moved to US as well). Fortunately, it was fixed in a few days.

I took this photo! I can't remember where this was, but I think we were on vacation in one of the states.

The first time we had a real christmas tree for Christmas. Guess how people there transport their Christmas trees back home. Ok, they tie it to the roof of their cars. So we had our Christmas tree tied to the roof of one of our cars. Oh yea, we needed 2 cars in US because you don't usually see public transport and even taxis (mostly limousines) were rare enough. So 2 cars were essential and mom was forced to learn to drive in order to survive. Beside it is the fireplace, usually used in Winter (ok, obviously). I was quite fascinated with that. It looks like some bottomless pit or a black hole in this picture.

First Halloween. I was dressed up as some clown while Jean was some bear. We were quite clueless about what Halloween was about at that time. Our neighbours down our road lent us that costumes I think. The day was mainly spent trick-or-treating in school then at night around the neighbouring houses. Because the houses are generally further apart than in Singapore, you don't really get to go to many houses. Mostly walking, but it was quite fun. However, after learning that Halloween wasn't really biblically right, we didn't celebrate Halloween anymore.

First Thanksgiving in US. Yes, that's the turkey sitting on one of the plates. I think we had to eat that big bird over a few meals.

This was taken about 2 months before leaving for US. I don't know what the occassion was but mom likes this photo.

Today was a fun and relaxing day. I completed my workload in the morning and set off to Ai's house. I met Danielle and Joan at the bus stop opposite school. Joan came with a big bag of potato chips and soft drinks intended for camp. I helped to carry it a quarter of the journey. We then met Joycelyn at a bus stop a little further away. Ai went out to PS to buy the horror movie we were intending to watch, so we decided to find our way to her house first. That itself was like some expedition. We walked a big round and got a little lost. All I could remember was that the block was very tall. We finally managed to find it and Ai got there before us.

We made Ai's house as dark as we could and switched on the air con before enjoying/getting traumatised by the horror movie. We watched 4bia, which consisted of 4 horror stories stringed together. We laughed quite a lot during the horror movie, but Joan was worse. The movie was quite funny at some parts, but mostly scary. Ai watched it before so she was able to give some clue of what scary thing was going to happen next. But of course, it didn't help much because warnings didn't make the scenes any less scary. Joan was looking away most of the time and laughing to herself. I tried my best to watch everything but some parts were really creepy and so I watched those with my eyes nearly closed. Danielle screamed a few times, and my goodness, it was loud. Good thing I was already slightly deaf, so it wasn't too bad. She was sitting on top of me. Oops, no, not literally. I mean, she was sitting on the sofa and I was on the floor in front. I got a shock each time she screamed. The neighbours must have thought something wrong was going on in Ai's house. All the windows were closed and the curtains were drawn. They'd occassionally hear loud laughter, then silence, then screaming. Joycelyn and Ai were the only ones who managed to watch the movie without much fright.

After watching 4bia, we went on to watch "She's the Man" which Joan rented for the camp. It was funny, so it managed to brainwash us a bit after the horror movie. Actually, poor Ai, she is the only one at home and she might not be able to sleep while thinking of the 4bia. But I think she's going to spend the rest of her hours watching Beethoven Virus anyway.

For the record, Joan spilled her coke 3 times and there were chips scattered around. Danielle was a little better. She spilled twice. The first one was discovered, but the second one wasn't until I accidentally stepped on the spill and realised my sock was wet. Ai drank 3 cans of coke and together, we finished 2 bags of potato chips and a bag of prawn crackers. It felt like some accomplishment. The 2 bottles of soft drnink that Joan brought along weren't used. I was forced to take home the last bag of chips, despite my repeated refusals. I'm not a chips person... And Ai claimed she was on her own dieting project. I had no choice but to take it because Joycelyn and Danielle were already running off. Hmm.. Now, how am I going to finish that...

We spent some time playing cards before going home. I'm glad we all had fun, especially Joycelyn, Joan and Danielle because they worked super hard and really needed a good break.

I reached school at 7.30am today for camp. I was quite excited about the camp even before the exams started. Today was like, the day I had been look forward to for quite some time, and a motivation for me to work hard so I could take time off to enjoy life.

The camp started off with everyone sitting around in their usual, distinct cliques. We got mixed around and joined our new groups. My group consisted of Ai, Quraisha, Ruo Han, Zhou Xian. Are group was named "Carlsberg" (the name of a drink). If I remember properly, this was our group cheer (sung to the tune of the chorus of the Carlsberg advert jingle):

We are the Carlsberg, we are the number one
Mess with us and you will all get drunk
We are the Carlsberg, wait until you're eighteen...

We did some ice breakers and team bonding games and I think I got to know many people much better. Like Zhou Xian, Quraisha and the new sec 1, Ruo Han, they were really nice people and quite cooperative too. Although people like Zhou Xian and Quraisha have been around for some time in CCA, I've never talked to them past "give me your A.. out of tune!". Today, I started knowing some juniors in a deeper level, and that was the best reward from camp, well, not forgetting the other fun too.

Halfway while the juniors were having sectionals and the seniors were busy writing a welcome message for the sec 1s and our "will" for the rest of the juniors, Joycelyn broke the news that camp had been cancelled. Today was our first day, and also our last day. I was quite stunned at first, and I didn't quite believe it. It took me until Joan and Joycelyn talked to Ms K, and said there was nothing that could be done to continue the camp past day 1 before I finally accepted 95% of the situation. All the way till the final debrief, the last 5% was hoping for a miracle. But of course, it never happened. I have doubts about my motto, "Never give up, even when things are looking hopeless". While such optimism is commendable, it often leads to greater disappointment and the wastage of hoping. On the other hand, for someone who isn't optimistic, he/she would readily accept the hopeless situation and get on with it faster.

In the afternoon, we played the amazing race in school. It was very well planned, creative and fun. It involved a great deal of teamwork and enthusiasm to enjoy the game, all of which were present when we were playing. I got to interact more with my group mates and saw them in a different light. Most of the groups agreed on the "don't pop our balloons and we won't pop yours" treaty, signed using a handshake. We were mainly targeting the Ginger Ale team. The amazing race was really good and enjoyable.

Joan, Joycelyn (and Danielle, though I don't think she sees this):
The three of you really put in a lot of effort in planing the whole camp and I really appreciate that. I saw how all of you planned and worked at it all the way since the end of the MYEs till today, and it must have been tiring. The camp may have gone drastically off course, but I hope it won't let you down too much, because it really was a success. I admired how all of you were so versatile, being able to adapt to the sudden change and working around a completely new schedule. The bonding camp definitely achieved it's objective because from what many people shared, they got to know each other better, not just in breadth but in depth. Just treat this camp as a dry run for the camp after O levels. More importantly, remember that it's the process that counts, not the result.

There's tomorrow to continue looking forrward to. Going to Ai's house to slack with the camp comm.

Friends you make in secondary school stay with you for life. I trust the statement even more today.

In the morning, mom had already left the house and there was only me awake. I received a phone call from this very friendly lady who was asking for "Esther X X X" and I politely told her she got the wrong number. However, she kept asking me whether I was sure, and whether I knew of such a person. After she twisted the name around a bit, I finally realised she could have been referring to my mom. I told her the X X X lived here, but Esther wasn't part of the name. Then she realised that she got the right number and started asking me if X X X was around. I said she wasn't, then she went on to tell me about how she was an old secondary school classmate. I let her know that X X X was my mom and then referred her to the hand phone number. The lady sounded quite nice and she was really persistent. I might have regretted it if I insisted too hard that she got the wrong number because of the slightly incorrect name, but thankfully I didn't ruin the reunion.

I managed to complete quite a bit of work today and by around 4.30pm, I was quite bored. I started walking around the house aimlessly again. Then my mom came home and she saw me standing in the middle of the house, drinking a bottle of Yakult. She asked me, "Enjoying life arh?" How true. I was so happy I could do homework today because I was in a better physical state. So I replied, "Yea!" then she kept laughing. I think she prefers to know I'm not studying hard.

I learnt about how the 24-28year long-lost friend managed to get her. Apparantly, She went to search the online phone directory and found dad's name. I asked mom how the friend and dad knew each other because dad was from an all-boys secondary school, so the only chance would be if the friend went to RJC too, and she went, "hey we also go out and watch movies with each other ok.. (she probably means she let her then-boyfriend meet her friends)" So the friend called home and I picked up. I was probably her first and hardest obstacle. Then she smsed mom and mom thought her friend was some detective and couldn't believe they managed to contact each other again. They're having a "clique reunion" tomorrow because another classmate just returned from overseas for vacation.

Here's something any violinist can try while doing violin practice. Eat a piece of dark chocolate and try to maintain the sound you're producing. It's challenging, especially when you move your mouth because the whole violin will experience some violent turbulance. My mom came into my room and popped a piece of dark chocolate into my unsuspecting mouth. My bow bounced a bit the moment I tasted it. Ah well, it will definitely make violin practice a little more interesting, plus, it's a healthier choice.

There's CCA camp tomorrow. I'll pack before I sleep tonight, but I hope I don't forget anything. I'm healthy already, zoom. Please don't quarantine me with cockroaches, thanks.

The fever medicine only suppresses fever for a few hours. I cleared temperature taking in school. The whole day, I was bearing with troublesome stomach aches. My temp wasn't high at all in the afternoon, so I went out. By the time I reached home last night, my temperature was almost 39 degrees. I could feel myself radiating heat and whatever I touched gained heat super fast. I was hoping I wouldn't die or my brain wouldn't overheat and lose all it's information. I was forced to sleep without a blanket plus a fan blowing right at me. It was so torturing it took me about 2 hours to finally fall asleep.

There's Playmax later. I'm feeling better now, but I hope today doesn't turn out like yesterday.

An update and a correction. Today is like the graph of a cubic equation. I think my fever is getting worse. I'm starting to feel like how I felt at school. And my stomach is giving me problems. I've been having diahrrea a few times today and now I have a stomach ache. I've been to the toilet 3 times in the past half an hour. I hope I recover soon because I want to enjoy living tomorrow.

I was sent home today because I was discovered to be having a fever. As I type this, my temperature has decreased and I'm in a better state. My temperature was a degree higher than normal today during temperature-taking, but since my usual temperature is around 35 degrees, it's usually not considered a fever. I was already feeling slightly weird this morning but it got worse throughout English. After being forced to take my temperature again after recess, I registered a reading of 37.8 degrees Celsius, officially a fever. Jie Ying, Evangeline and Audrey gathered people to force me to go home. Once Chandini found out, she immediately told Mr L and I was sent to the office.

The office took my temperature using the "bang-bang" thing where they point a gun at my head and press the trigger. My temperature was 37.4 degrees Celsius, not officially a fever. Maybe if the gun reads more than 37.6 degrees, something will fly out of the sensor. I was sent back to class because that gun said I didn't have a fever. Chandini looked deeply confused. I was going, "yay!"

After going back to class, Mr L wasn't convinced and asked me to go home. It was probably because since my normal temperature is 35 degrees, anything in the 37s is already quite high. I travelled back to the office and tried to convince the staff to let me go home. I was eventually sent home. I waited for mom in the office. It's the first time I was in their "sick bay". It's located at the side of the office, near the conference room. I sat there for half an hour I think, but it seemed like 1 hour. My head was aching and so were my bones. I think my condition detiorated. I was quite restless and I couldn't stand how hot yet cold I was. My head hurt a lot and whatever I saw looked like what you see on a TV with poor reception. Probably my Thalasemia minor acted up and caused that type of vision. If I were standing, I would have fainted.

Mom dropped me off at the clinic across our house and I went to see the doc. I was worried I would faint while walking there because my head was feeling weird. But thankfully, I reached safely and there were no other patients, so I could see the doc quickly. I was asked questions like whether I had travelled overseas the past 7 days etc. I told him I didn't have a fever anymore but when he checked, my temperature was 38.2. That probably explained why I felt like some radiator. I think the temperature got higher when I reached home because I felt half dead and my head nearly melted.

Taking a shower and eating lunch were quite torturing. The water seemed like melted ice and lunch was a tiring process. After that, I went to sleep. I woke up a few times to walk around and slept until 7.30pm. I think I'm going to have a lot of trouble falling asleep tonight. It feels like a jet lag. Now, I only have a slight fever and I should be able to go to school tomorrow. I also need to be alive enough to have fun tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks, Jie Ying, Evangeline and Audrey for forcing me to be socially responsible and go home. I really don't think I would have survived the rest of the day in school, looking back at how weak I was when I reached home. I think my day was like some bell curve, with a positive ax2. I still have a slight fever and headache now, but at least I'm in a better state than in the afternoon. Nowadays, I rarely get this sick, but it's good because it reminds me That I'm not a superhuman and I need to rest.

It's not a good day today.

I'm so sorry, Jie Ying.

(Insert part about today being a good day) Actually, I will stop stating if the day was good or not, because since most of the time, it's good. Therefore, every day is a great day, unless otherwise specified.

Today was a holiday for non-lit students, that's me! My day was mainly spent doing homework and playing. I feel so accomplished because I managed to finish composing one more stanza of music homework. I used the piano to figure out what notes I wanted. But then again, I don't know how to write down what I play, and I can't read what I write, so I end up playing my mental score instead of what I write down. I'll probably end up having trouble presenting my work to ms P again. This is not good. I need a personal pianist that can connect to my brain and play out what I want to hear. In addition, I need a high tech score writer to write down everything the pianist plays. The main problem I have is the pedal concept in playing the piano. I don't know how to instruct whoever is reading my score to hold down the pedal, or hold the notes etc. At first, I used squiggly lines to notate that, then I tried calculating the exact time when each note came in during the pedal thing, but I gave up because it became too mathematical and there were many tiny rests within my bar.

I finally got the chance to go swimming this afternoon. I had to put off swimming for a while firstly because of my ear, then because of SYF rehearsals, then MYE, then Chinese intensive. If my grandmother sees this, I'll get questioned. I used to get a regular lecture on not exercising too much because I usually swam 40 laps when I was younger. She would probably celebrate if I don't exercise because she's worried about Thalasemia minor. Almost everyone in my family (including extended) with Chan as a surname suffers from Thalasemia. Can a person with Thalasemia ever excel in sports? I think so, but definitely not me. There are great sportsmen/women out there who suffer from Thalasemia minor, but they go through more difficulty. Whenever I have to stand for a long time (like taking a bus/violin lesson), or do sports that involve the head having to be over the heart (jogging/cycling), I get worried about fainting. It's a terrible feeling when I'm in a semi-conscious state and can't say anything to tell my faimly I'm alright. On the other hand, I can never faint while swimming, so it's my favourite sport. If I could call sleeping a sport, it would definitely top my chart.

I need to go read SS and do the English oral thing. Back to school again tomorrow. On the bright side, there are 3 more days of lessons before I can start relaxing. Today was just a preview.

I will skip the part about today being another nice day. There were 2 hours of pure humans today, which meant 2 hours of pure slacking time. Ru ri, Jie Ying and I (the pure slackers) went to the hall to do CIP and provide some entertainment for ourselves. Jie Ying came very prepared with a few cloths and a big bottle of piano polish. I nearly typed "piano sauce". It really looked like some mustard thing. I bet if she left it in the canteen, it would have been snapped up eagerly. Jie Ying polished the hall piano. There was really a lot of difference. After the professional polishing, the piano seemed to sparkle though it was black in colour. And the ultimate test: my teeth seemed white when I smiled at the piano. Ru ri and I helped out too. I helped Jie Ying reach the not-so-easy-to-reach places and I found that tiring enough. I think Jie Ying did 99% of the polishing. Ru ri and I played music and gave moral support, both of which are vital aspects of piano polishing.

I think I am slightly addicted to Totoro after listening to Jie Ying and Ru ri try out the duet. They told me it's a cartoon about this cute monster. What I don't get is, how can a monster be cute? Monsters are supposed to go ROAR and not sing some happy songs. Weird monster. Actually, poor monster. It's mentally unsound. Listen to Totoro. I guarantee you it sounds nice. But I just felt like laughing at the monster or whatever it is while watching the cartoon Ru ri sent me. Oh man... this is bad. This thing kept running through my head today. It was worse when I was reminded of it over the phone.

Pure slacking time today was very productive. Productive slacking. I think I've violined for 3 hours in total today, and it's not even a cca day. Managed to fix up considerable portions of Beethoven's Romance in G and From My Homeland by Smetana. 3 plus months to O level practical. Going to have to practice with Ru ri like crazy from all pure slacking periods onwards.

I stayed back until 2pm in school (to disturb jie ying and evangeline) before making my way to NJC for the DSA audition. I reached early, despite the all the walking and climbing I had to do. It's quite nice and windy up at the office level (about the 6th storey of a HDB flat) so it was like some reward after the hard work. I went into the audition room with another cellist from MGS. I won't comment on her playing since I don't play the cello. I went through the audition first. I played the piece I had prepared (some slow Bach sarabande). When I finished, the conductor asked me to play a contrasting piece. I panicked a bit because I wasn't warned beforehand. Firstly, they told me to prepare a piece 3 days before the audition. Next, they scare me on the spot by asking me to play something I wasn't prepared for. And more importantly, a fast piece. I had no choice but to play the next movement, which was the Gigue. Thankfully, I managed to play it quite ok-ly. Then I was tested on some scales and they asked a few questions. I made some mistakes due to nervousness, but they weren't really noticeable so I think it's ok. Oh, Jie Ying, I wasn't blur.

Yay there's no school tomorrow. Only those who take lit have to go, so I'm having my first day of holiday tomorrow. I think I'll be so bored I'll start walking around the house aimlessly.

Yesterday was a nice day again. Professional sharing day was an interesting experience, and it's something I won't forget easily. There wasn't any speaker for engineering, so I followed Audrey to listen to Medicine and Dentistry. I don't think any of them sparked any interest in me. I don't think I like the idea of having anything to do in the medical field, partly because it has a lot to do with biology and people. When I was younger, the only occupations I heard of were either being a police officer, or a fire fighter. In kindergarten (still in US), I had to draw out what I wanted to be, so I drew a fire truck because it was easier. No I didn't want to be a fire truck, but you get the idea. Then when I got a little older, maybe around 6 or 7, I learnt that my dad was an engineer, and that has been my ambition ever since. On the other hand, Jean switched from a cardiologist, to a boxer, then a bagpipe player, a lot of other ambitions in between before finally ending up clueless. I think it's good in a way I know what I want and I've stuck to it for 10 years, but then again, like what Mrs S said, if something comes along my way, I might just go along.

Everyone looked unusual yesterday. It took at least 5 seconds of staring before I could recognise most people. This is probably what most people are going to end up looking like 10 years down the road. Not everyone will be a professional, because there always has to be some workforce balance. I might consider being a professional slacker if that job is ever created. After all, jobs that do not exist now will form a large part of the jobs available when I finally graduate, so there's always hope. I think the whole professional sharing day idea was a great one because it was definitely meaningful, to a large extent. 5 months left in SMSS. I started appreciating it already, so I won't regret later on.

Today was another nice day. I think every day is a great day. Jean went to school in the morning for band practice. She's back to her drum sticks. I went with mom and dad for lunch. We were walking past Crystal Jade before finally deciding to eat at Swensens. Then I happened to look at their promotion board outside Crystal Jade. To my horror, they were trying to advertise some freaky crab dish. It put there in English: Recommendation on Various Way to Serve Gross Crab. Looking at the sign just made me lose all my appetite. Variations on serving gross crabs... Ew.

Today was Timothy Fellowship's 27th anniversary. Some members of the past 27 years were there. Let me do a bit of recounting. It started 27 years ago with the batch of people around my parents' ages. My dad was my age that year. They started the youth group and after that, it went down for generations (each generation is roughly 6 years). My parents and other teenagers in church at that time met together for fellowship and all that. I think dad led the fellowship for a while. Today, Jean and I are finally in Timothy Fellowship. Xiao Jun is the Chair, I'm her table. Though it's challenging serving in church, it definitely is rewarding. As what Xiao Jun said, on the 30th anniversary, we should just dump out everything from the cupboard and display the old stuff.

I have no choice but to post again because I have nothing better to do. There are 2 computer addicts colonising the house right now, and no one is stopping us. I'll type about how I've been coping with life without parents, season 2.

My grandparents dropped off dinner before going to church for prayer meeting. They usually bring one or two dishes for dinner on Thursdays, but this time it was more than just for the fun of it. Meanwhile, Jean had just come back from her Raffles Model United Nations Conference. Tomorrow is the last day, I think, but it stretches all the way till about 10pm. Jean bought back bubble tea and we started on dinner. Dinner wasn't the tricky part. The cleaning up was not so easy because the container was oily for some strange reason. Even though Jean but tons of detergent, the thing was still oily. The secret, I discovered, was to use hands to wash it. That was after experimenting with soaking it in detergent-water solution. I nearly wanted to shout "Eureka!" when the container tested negative for oil. That was one obstacle cleared.

I learnt from the past experience without mom and dad at home, and I decided to start the washer early so I would be able to hang the clothes up earlier and not end up sleeping at 2am. But I think I started it too early, because I found myself walking around the house aimlessly before deciding to kill time by using the computer.

Then at 9pm, I suddenly realised that we were supposed to cut up pears to eat. Better late than never, so I decided to fulfill my parents' wish list. I'm not sure, but I think that was my first time cutting up a pear. I think I seem very spoilt at this stage, and I really wouldn't mind if my parents made me go through all this more often. I was almost going to calculate the angle at which my knife was supposed to cut the pear. It was harder cutting out the core of the pear, those triangle shaped things I usually see in the middle of a pear slice. I think I didn't measure the angle and forces properly because some slices ended up splitting along the weak point. Amidst all the precision work, I was also worrying for the safety of my fingers. In the end, the pear slices were unusually oddly shaped, but it was rewarding getting to eat it. I'll have to practice more if I want to eat something more aesthetically pleasing.

Music homework looks unfriendly. I still have 4 stanzas of a poem to compose a melody + piano accompaniment to, within 3 weeks, but realistically, 1 week. That's troublesome because I don't even play the piano, and even if I can play a negligible bit, I don't know how to write down what I play. So I end up having to settle for something easy to write down and play at the same time. That usually lacks creativity and techincal challenge. Furthermore, the poem is weird. Ai interpretted it as a gay guy writing it for his partner.

I finally had violin lesson after 2 weeks of Chinese intensive that ate into my afternoons. Ms K made me play all the pieces then we chose 3 for the dip exam next year. I decided to give up on Mozart. Just wait till Mozart hears this.. I think he's already in Bishan. Not exactly give up on the concerto, but just not play it for the exam. There are a few reasons. (I feel like slotting in the 无风不起浪，事出必有因 here.) Mozart's concerto is in the the Classical period, which is the same as the Beethoven Romances I'm playing. That means, there's enough contrast between periods and I can just choose Beethoven because I play his Romances better. And in case anyone was wondering, no, it does not have anything to do with me being romantic. The other 2 pieces are from the Baroque and Romantic period. Altogether, it's slightly more than 30mins, which is enough for the programme.

The bad thing is that I have to start getting to work on my programme notes, the stuff they usually give you when you walk into a concert hall. Just that I have to write one long essay for the examiners. The notes have to explain the music I'm playing, the composer's styles, what happens in the music, and how I interpret it etc etc. That's quite a tall order for someone like me. What's worse, I have to hand it in along with the application form in a few months. Now, where do I start...

Mom and Dad are off again, this time to Bintan. It's not as bad as their Taiwan trip because it's not as far, and they're only going for 2D1N. They are going to some resort with a packaged spa (not science practical) and massage etc. They were patiently waiting for me to finish O level Chinese before sailing off. Once again, the lists of house chore instructions are plastered all over the fridge. This time, it's just one night, so if Jean and I make any mistakes with the house chores, the effect won't be that disasterous. It's like cumulative causation.

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. Everyone has to go to school in executive attire. I think many people are having full-dress rehearsals in their homes tonight. Wearing that makes us all look 10 years older than we actually are. Such unnecessary ageing. But I think it's going to be quite fun.

I think I dreamed in Chinese last night. When I woke up, I replied some well-wishing smses. One of which was Jolene's. I was trying to point out that I went to bed earlier than usual last night (10pm) and so I didn't see her message earlier. But my reply went something like, "I sleeped earlier last night". The worst thing was, I didn't realise until I was corrected. I think the school really gave an overdose of Chinese. I hope I recover soon.

Today's paper was quite ok. I didn't expect some parts to be so easy/straight forward. But after finally finishing Chinese, I didn't know whether to feel happy or sad. The questions were good, but the question numbers weren't. After Paper 1 ended, I went to talk to Natalie and then I suddenly realised I might have written the question number wrongly for the first part of Paper 1. I wrote about question 1, but I think I remember myself writing "Q2" on the paper. Till now, I can't remember what exactly was written. The worst part is, I'll never get to know. For mid-years, I forgot to write my question numbers. This time, I wrote the wrong one. I don't know which is worse, really. If I happened to write it wrongly, I'll probably be out of point for the 10 marks. Contemplating on that destroyed all my hopes for the rest of Paper 2. I spent the rest of the break worrying, all the way till I got home.

The weird thing is, I was reading the devotional book before lunch just now and it happened to be on the topic of worrying. I was wondering, how did God know? The point is, there is no point worrying about the paper anymore. I'll never know what I actually put. Furthermore, I should just trust that God has His own ways of bringing about His plans for me, and they are infintely wise. If anyone who may be reading this is worrying about anything under our hot sun, don't give in to despair. Because it causes us to exaggerate our adversities in life, and it also hinders us from being able to count our blessings. If I don't get the A1 I want this time, I'll just take it at the end of the year. The next time, I will make sure I remember to write down the correct question number.